Who is thought to be the only known survivor of spontaneous human combustion?

great2beme

Peter Jones? In 1944 Peter Jones, survived this experience and reported that there was no sensation of heat nor sighting of flames. He just saw smoke. He stated that he felt no pain. http://www.crystalinks.com/shc.html Feb 13 10, 7:15 PM

Baloo55th

I must confess to having certain doubts about the cases mentioned in that site. One in particular, where "a shrunken skull the size of a baseball" was part of the remains. Bone can change through calcium loss, but fire doesn't (to the best of my knowledge) shrink it. Fragment it, yes, but shrink an adult skull to the size of a baseball? (And presumably remain recognisable as a skull...) I doubt it. Zb might know different. No sources are given for anything, and I can find no trace of Peter Jone on Google. Still nothing more than the same basic statement, with no identifying info, or sources. It's parroted from site to site, and even appears in what I feel is Turkish, on a forum. Anybody find anything more about this unfortunately common name and SHC? Incidentally, I did have to deal with an apparent case of SHC some years ago. A 16 year old lad suddenly erupted in flames. I rolled him in a large puddle, wrapped a dust sheet round him, and took him to the hospital. (The dust sheet was because he was only wearing slightly charred underpants and socks by this time.) Apparent? Yes. An hour before, he had squirted petrol over himself when filling a car. He thought that was long enough for it to evaporate off, and lit a fag. I'm not saying any of the quoted cases had any similarity, only that if someone hadn't known how to put him out, and hadn't known the history, this could have entered the 'records' too. Like the mysterious Peter Jones, he was unhurt (but singed) and hadn't felt any pain. His outer clothing totally vanished. He gave up the ciggies, as a result. Feb 14 10, 12:09 PM

Zbeckabee

I think we would first need to agree that SHC exists. Spontaneous human combustion (SHC) is a name used to describe cases of the burning of a living human body without an apparent external source of ignition. Some regard SHC as a unique and currently unexplained phenomenon, others feel that cases described as SHC can be understood using current generally-accepted scientific principles, but the most common view by far is extreme skepticism. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spontaneous_human_combustion#Survivors_of_static_flash_fires.2Fevents Feb 16 10, 12:46 AM